the audience applauded

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely Fantastic

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Already revered for making the seminal anti-war (World War I) film and the third Academy Award Best Picture winner All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), producer-director Lewis Milestone selected Harry Brown's novel (and screenwriter Robert Rossen) to make this highly thought of WW II drama which tells a story about the Lee platoon of the Texas Division (United States Infantry) that came ashore at an Italian beach near Salerno in 1943. Earl Robinson wrote a song and Millard Lampell provided the lyrics that are hauntingly and soulfully sung by Kenneth Spencer, comprising most of Freddie Rich's background score and filling in the details behind what was more than "just a little walk in the sun", to become an anthem for foot soldiers then and now.The credits open with narration from an uncredited actor, Burgess Meredith, who ironically would go on to play real life war correspondent Ernie Pyle in a documentary style drama that similarly chronicles the lives of infantry soldiers (during the same war) titled Story of G.I. Joe (1945), the film which earned Robert Mitchum his only Academy Award nomination. After introducing the major characters, Meredith's voice-over is supplanted by the title song:It was just a little walk In the warm Italian sun But it was not an easy thing And poets are writing The tale of that fight And songs for the children to singThe music continues while the film opens with a night scene of the soldiers in their landing craft still a few miles offshore:Let them sing of the men of the fighting platoon Let them sing of the job they done How they came across the sea to sunny Italy And took a little walk in the sun They took a little walk in the sun.Almost from the start, it's apparent that the movie will not be like others from its genre, which are typically dominated by action sequences. Instead, A Walk in the Sun (1945) is a dialogue dominated picture that features at least ten character sketches which provide insight into the (kind of) men that fought in the (Texas division of the) infantry:Rivera and Friedman, Tyne and Porter, A Texan from Jersey, and one from Dakota A Texan from out near Duluth, Minnesota Kansas, Maine and Tennessee, Lord God, They're all in the Texas Infantry They're all in the Texas InfantryWhen the characters fall silent, the song and its lyrics fill in the blanks; the singer's voice plaintively wails while cinematographer Russell Harlan pans the line of dug in soldiers:It's a long long time a man spends a waiting' waiting around in a war I think of a gal I've never seen The hair is black and her eyes are green Her name is Helen or maybe Irene It's a long long time for waiting I think of all the things I haven't done or love the women I haven't won It seems like my life ain't really begun It's a long long time a waiting'Important details of their mission is initially revealed via this background music:This is the story of one little job One day from dawn until noon Just one battle more in a long long war And the men of a single platoon It was 53 men started out that day Along the Italian shore And some of those were mighty good joes Who never see the sunrise anymore, poor boys They'll never see the sunrise anymoreWhen the task is complete and the day has been won, the song repeats its opening and concludes with these telltale words:It's the walk that leads down through a Philippine town And it hits Highway seven, north of Rome; It's the same road they had coming out of Stalingrad It's the old Lincoln Highway back home It's where ever men fight to be free.It stars Dana Andrews as Sergeant Tyne, who ultimately leads the frontal assault on a farmhouse that's a German stronghold after directing the destruction of a strategic bridge (the sergeants play a more prominent role because the platoon's lieutenant was mortally wounded before they even reached the beach); Richard Conte plays the machine gunner, Private Rivera; George Tyne plays Private Friedman; John Ireland plays a minister's son & Pvt. that verbally and somewhat poetically "writes" letters to his sister; Lloyd Bridges plays a former MN farmer, Sgt. Ward; Sterling Holloway plays the medic McWilliams; Norman Lloyd plays Pvt. Archimbeau, who always draws the toughest assignments; Herbert Rudley is initially second in command as Sgt. Porter, but gives way to Sgt. Tyne when he can't handle the pressure; Richard Benedict plays a New Yorker who speaks two languages, Brooklyn and Italian; Huntz Hall, George Offerman Jr. and Steve Brodie are among the many others.

Two things weight heavily on how and why this movie disappoints all but the hardcore cinephile now: supposedly set in Italy it was filmed entirely in Calabasas, Los Angeles. And the release date of December 1945. When hundreds of thousands, if not millions of returned servicemen would still be waking up screaming in the night pursued by the horrors of war; seeing men blown to pieces all around them, the mindless destruction and carnage impossible to rid from their minds.Even if it were conceived then, making and releasing 'Saving Private Ryan' type war film at that time would have made audiences sick in the cinemas or run screaming into the street.'Action' then is replaced by dialogue of realism of the interminable tense periods of 'waiting' for war in a world of dangerous unknowns.70 years on the generations whose greatest emotional tension is sitting in traffic jams, and who HAVE seen it all before just can't relate to the stage-play pace of this kind of film making anymore. And the story would be much better appreciated if read as a screenplay.

This is a WWII film, made during the war, and therefore should be closer to the truth than later films.We get attempts at character, and some of the banter is well done.We get some situations that are well done, such as the confusion, of not knowing what is going on somewhere else, which two characters experience early in a trench, and which brings too much curiosity out in one of the characters.We have a realistic depiction of a breakdown.There, the assets of the film stop. Unfortunately, we get the heavy handed cigarette commercial, and we know tobacco companies sponsor this film since any character who doesn't light up a cigarette is destined to become a casualty. The predictability doesn't end there. The film goes beyond being a bit contrived into the "here we go again" clichés.The clichés ruin this film. For a film that tries to pride itself on realism, there is an incredible lack of screaming after being shot, and of the cleanest wounds ever in film. That would be passable, except that immediately after a man is shot, the camera follows him for many seconds of "taking the pain" quietly, and we never even see any pain on these men. Now, some directors go overboard on the "pain" deal, and they are just as stereotypical, but this film is ridiculous in the other direction.We know from the contrived writing which characters bullets will find, and which they won't.And the stupid song that went with it brings the rating down considerably.Most war films from this era were very good in one way or another. This one falls well short of them.

I just bought this on a bargain rack, due to the stellar cast that was listed on the jacket. Unfortunately, the movie never really seems to take off. The incessant dialog between the characters would be acceptable if it were in any way compelling, but it is not. Mostly small talk and whimsy. It is understandable that guys involved in a war talk about just about anything else while pursuing it. But there is virtually no action here to balance the chatter. We hear some action and even see some smoke, but are detached from it. Must have been a very small budget.The final scene, in which a farmhouse is assaulted, the men talk up an intricate plan, which oddly results in a clumsy frontal assault of the type they had been professing they would avoid.Perhaps realistic and definitely well-acted, 'Walk' none the less fails to excite.